In addition to providing a nice place to play Frisbee, run, picnic, and, as we saw just last weekend, make out in public, parks can also keep cities cool. Urban areas with parks and other green spaces (like green roofs) could potentially offset temperature rises caused by global warming, experts say.

A New Scientist article reports that Roland Ennos, a researcher at Manchester University, determined that if the green space in the northwest England city remains the same, the temperature will increase 4 degrees Celsius by 2080:

But, by altering the amounts of green cover in the city, the researchers found that the temperature rise could effectively be cancelled out. "Adding 10% of green cover could reduce surface temperatures by 4°C by 2080," Ennos told New Scientist.

Although the study authors say that more research needs to be done before they can make any concrete conclusions about how much parks and green space will limit temperature increases, the results are promising.

“These new results are dramatic and, if correct, indicate that relatively little alteration to our cities would be needed to combat the adverse effects of future temperature extremes,” he told New Scientist.  

We love a suggestion to combat rising temperatures that involves greening cites, even if it means additional space for snogging, which apparently is what kids do these days instead of necking.

Posted by Susan Cosier on May 17, 2007 at 2:19 PM
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